The Middle East has been a ideological battle between the two major sects of Islam….the Sunni and the Shia….the major proponents of these sects are Saudi Arabia and Iran….these divisions have lead to some bloody confrontations like the war between Iraq and Iran in the 80s.
Finally a deal has been brokered between the two…..and it was not through the work of the US to find some sort of peace for the benefit of the region.
US arch nemesis was the culprit….China.
The agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume relations, a deal mediated by China, appears to be a watershed moment in the Middle East, realigning alliances that have dominated diplomacy for decades while—at least for now—leaving the US out. The pact indicates that nations in the region are willing to move beyond rivalries that seemed permanent to find new solutions without the help of the Americans, who have been involved in peace negotiations there for most of a century but now are more focused on Ukraine and Asia, per the Wall Street Journal.
Long a minor participant in Middle East issues, China has stepped in to fill the void, hosting negotiations in Beijing before announcing the agreement Friday. One analyst said there’s no denying the importance of China’s success, which eclipses President Biden’s efforts. “Yes, the United States could not have brokered such a deal right now with Iran specifically, since we have no relations,” Amy Hawthorne of the nonprofit Project on Middle East Democracy in Washington told the New York Times. “But in a larger sense, China’s prestigious accomplishment vaults it into a new league diplomatically and outshines anything the US has been able to achieve in the region since Biden came to office.”
Israel is left out, too, after lobbying Saudi Arabia; as the US decreases its involvement, allies have grown concerned about security guarantees made in the past, per the Journal. Other analysts—and Biden aides—caution against inflating the significance of the agreement, which, at bottom, promises to reopen the nations’ embassies shut since 2016. It’s a minor step, they say, toward easing tensions. Besides, “China doesn’t have the capacity to play a bigger security role in the region,” said Sanam Vakil of Chatham House, a think tank in London. But the deal does show China’s “potential to be an appealing alternative to Washington,” she said.
The final sentence of the report says it all.
This deal should have been brokered by the US but instead we let China get the upper hand…..but an incident in 1979 precludes the US from ever doing the right thing.
Is this agreement a big deal? Yes it is.
Iran and Saudi Arabia concluded a deal Friday to restore normal diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies within two months. The agreement came at the end of a week of Chinese-brokered negotiations in Beijing, which brought an end to the rift between the two governments that has existed ever since Saudi Arabia broke off relations in 2016.
If the agreement holds, it will be an important step forward in regional diplomacy, and it may help in facilitating progress towards a more lasting truce in Yemen. The resumption of normal relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia is the result of their recognizing that the earlier intense animosity between these countries was mutually undesirable. Restoring diplomatic ties is not a panacea for all regional tensions, but it should have a stabilizing effect that is very much needed as U.S.-Iranian tensions are on the rise.
China’s mediation is an example of the constructive role that other major powers can sometimes have in the Middle East. It also shows how much more effective diplomacy can be when a major power has not ensnared itself in the region’s rivalries. China enjoys reasonably good relations with both governments, and that put it in a position to broker a deal that the U.S. likely could never have managed to get. As the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi observed, “By not taking sides, China has emerged as a player that can resolve disputes rather than merely sell weapons.”
Why the Iran-Saudi agreement to restore ties is so big
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
So now China seals the deal for their own territorial aspirations by including the Mideast in their sights.
Appears so and the US could have done that but we are too worried about some spurious threat. chuq
I guess the Islamis haven’t been reading about how China treats Islam within its own borders …
Probably not….they just want what benefits them….like any other country. chuq
If genocide is their bag then China will be more than willing to accommodate them.
China has made friends by building infrastructure and stuff….Instead of exporting guns….chuq
Weaving the web of deceit and domination with sugar instead of guns … deadly anyway you look at it.
We can find fault with every attempt at world domination…..by any country. Like I told Pete…at least people would still be breathing. chuq
They wo uld be breathing alright but not as many and not for long.
China has ‘helped’ many African nations and they did not succumb to violence. chuq
Not yet anyway but they are losing their natural resources –and that cannot be a good thing.
We are losing our resources as well….that is what happens with runaway greed. chuq
We need to get into the position of profiting from resources instead of being dependent on them.
Kinda like the oil industry? chuq
China will enslave or murder any Islamic person they can get their hands on … they are setting the trap with cheese is all they are doing …
Sounds so very familiar. chuq
Well, yes……on the surface. China is raping countries economies and natural resources better than a mob protection racket. It’s almost more humane to sell them guns and have them kill each other.
They are doing nothing different than the US or Russia. chuq
China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur population and other mostly-Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang.
Human rights groups believe China has detained more than one million Uyghurs against their will over the past few years in a large network of what the state calls “re-education camps”, and sentenced hundreds of thousands to prison terms.
A series of police files obtained by the BBC in 2022 has revealed details of China’s use of these camps and described the routine use of armed officers and the existence of a shoot-to-kill policy for those trying to escape.
THeir shortcomings are known….but if they can broker a deal to stop the warring factions then more power to them. chuq
I don’t want to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm, but the hopes of that deal being long-lasting are slim.
Best wishes, Pete.
Like all deals by almost every country will be violated…..but at least some people will still be breathing. chuq
I like Constitutional Insurgent’s answer because it makes the most sense.
Of course it does. chuq
I like Bettley Pete’s answer too because his insight is spot on in my opinion.
Everyone is stuck on China….the idea that the two major sects could be finding ways of working together was the story. I know China bad I get that….this was about the agreement. chuq
The agreement that cannot possibly be done for any righteous cause. There has to be a dark side to China’s efforts in this regard.
Again it is about something that few could envision. chuq
The blind can rarely envision anything at all. There is nothing to be gained by anybody in trusting the Chinese or the Russians..or the North Koreans …Nor a lot of other primitive little conclave around the world. Many of those people are nothing but savages who have learned to play with matches and they are going to end up getting their collective asses burned or they are going to burn the rest of us to a crisp.
Nice John….demeaning people why? chuq
I am demeaning people because the people I am demeaning need demeaning because they are eminently demaningful.
I disagree chuq
My question is, “Yes, broker a peace… but at what price?”
That will depend on the seriousness of the participants. chuq
In this case, the party of the second part is going to get victimized one way or another.
I think it is buying friends instead of killing them chuq
They might be buying friends instead of killing them but when they have extracted everything they want from their newly purchased friends then they might go about getting rid of them. Or if they decide to infiltrate their new friends countries and start agitating to take them over, they might start campaigns to eliminate the opposition within those psuedo conquered nations.
John is that not what we do? chuq
that is what everybody does these days. Our thoughts of a “Throw-Away” society have now started to include human beings and likenesses of human beings.
WE excel at making terrible choices. chuq
So, what’s going on in the Middle East?
Apparently, a deal has been brokered between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and it seems to be a watershed moment.
This deal indicates that nations in the region are willing to move beyond rivalries that seemed permanent to find new solutions without the help of the Americans.
This is a huge shift in the geopolitical landscape, and it’s going to have big implications for the future of the Middle East.
I feel it is a step forward but it will depend on the seriousness of the participants as to what it will lead to in the future.
Thanx for the visit and comment please stop by whenever the feeling strikes you. chuq